AUSTRALIA
Drunk driver kills four kids
A drunk driver slammed his pickup truck into a group of children in Sydney, killing two sisters, their brother and a cousin and seriously injuring three others, police said yesterday. The 29-year-old driver was charged with manslaughter and high-range drink-driving following the incident late on Saturday in the Oatlands suburb of western Sydney. The children were on a footpath when the four-wheel drive jumped the curb and rammed into them, police said. “Yesterday I lost three of my children. I had a cousin, Bridget, she lost her daughter as well,” Daniel Abdallah told reporters yesterday. “I’m numb, probably that’s how I feel at the moment,” he said.
RUSSIA
Police detain protesters
Police in Saint Petersburg on Saturday detained participants in a small protest against proposed changes to the country’s constitution. No official protest figures or information about possible charges was immediately available. The news site Fontanka.ru said 10 people were detained. President Vladimir Putin last month called for constitutional amendments that are widely seen as a strategy for him to remain in power once his term ends in 2024. The proposed changes would redistribute national executive powers, allowing lawmakers to name prime ministers and Cabinet members and giving a greater role to an obscure consultative body called the State Council.
BRAZIL
Suspected logger killed
A man has died during a raid against illegal loggers in the northern state of Roraima, the country’s environment agency Ibama said. Ibama and military police agents found illegal logging activities in a forest area close to the city of Rorainopolis, the agency said in a statement late on Saturday. Two men involved in the illegal logging hid in the woods and began to shoot at the policemen, it said. In the ensuing exchange of fire, one of the illegal loggers died, the agency said.
UNITED STATES
Two killed after funeral
Gunfire erupted after a funeral on Saturday in Florida, killing a teenager and a man, and leaving one other person wounded, police said. Riviera Beach police said in a statement that the shooting happened near the Victory City Church shortly after 2:30pm. They said a 15-year-old boy and 47-year-old Royce Freeman died at the scene. The teen’s name wasn’t immediately released. Pastor Tywuante Lupoe said in a video statement posted on Facebook that the church was “very aware” that violence was a possibility at the funeral because of a family dispute and that it had provided armed security. A Riviera Beach police officer was present, he said.
ISRAEL
Rocket fired from Gaza
Palestinian militants on Saturday fired a rocket from the Gaza Strip into Israel, the military said. There were no casualties in the attack and no Palestinian group claimed responsibility. The firing came after a tense day of cross-border rocket launches from the Hamas-controlled territory, and Israeli artillery and airstrikes. The Gaza Strip has been relatively calm as part of an informal truce between its Hamas administration and Israel, but tension has simmered this week after US President Donald Trump unveiled his plan to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians promptly rejected the plan, which they saw as heavily favoring Israel and demonstrates the Trump administration’s reversal on the long-standing policy of creating a Palestinian state.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in